A Tasting Tour of Southeastern Arizona Wine Country

Tasting wine at a winery is one of my very favorite things to do. So, when some friends of ours invited us to go on a wine tasting tour of southeast Arizona, we said, "Hell, yes!"

About six of us piled into a van, and we set out for Sonoita and Elgin, towns in southeast Arizona with vineyards interspersed. We visited Dos Cabezas, Callaghan, Sonoita Vineyards, Canelo Hills, among other wineries and vineyards. In fact, at many of them, we actually met the winemakers, which was a nice treat.

Completely by coincidence, the same day we decided to go out, there was a wine festival as Canelo Hills winery, featuring nearby wineries, and wines from another growing area, near Wilcox, Arizona. A small crowd traded red tickets with winemakers gathered in tents pouring these wines -- eight bones for six tickets, a taste a ticket.

Surprisingly, seeing that Arizona is not a wine Mecca by any stretch of the imagination, we actually found several wineries with good wines on the trip. Three stood out: Dos Cabezas, Callaghan, and Pillsbury. All of these winemakers made wines that could compete with wine grown in more traditional areas, such as California.

The weather could not have been more perfect. It was warm, but not hot. Also, the wind from the day before had died down. It was so perfect, in fact, that we had a picnic lunch at the wine festival, and washed it down with a nice wine purchased at the festival.

In many ways, it was the perfect day.

Here is a picture of Julie behind the bar at the Callaghan tasting room. We bought three wines there, including the Caitlin's, Buena Suerte, and a red dessert wine.

Here we all are having lunch at Canelo Hills Winery, where the wine festival was going on.

For our little picnic, we had the Pillsbury Roan Red, which was a perfect companion to the fruit, cheese, bread, and salami we had for lunch.